Across the U.S., there’s a GOP push to rein in protesters
BISMARCK, N.D. — About an hour after some 200 police officers cleared the last demonstrators against the Dakota Access Pipeline from their sprawling encampment on the North Dakota prairie last week, Gov. Doug Burgum signed into law four bills aimed at making it easier to control such protests.
With a few strokes of a pen, he placed the state in the vanguard of an emerging backlash by conservative forces against political and social advocates who see demonstrations — however unruly — as free speech protected by the Constitution.
In a season rife with demonstrations over immigration, pipelines, abortion, women’s rights and more, Republican legislators in at least 16 states have filed bills intended to make protests more orderly or to toughen penalties against ones that go awry. Republicans in two other states, Massachusetts and North Carolina, have said they will file protest-related bills.
Those numbers include only bills whose sponsors have specifically linked them to protests, said Jonathan Griffin, a policy analyst who tracks the measures at the National Conference of State Legislatures. How many will be enacted is unclear; a few already have been pronounced dead in committee.
Interviews and news reports suggest some of the measures are either backed by supporters of President Donald Trump or are responses to demonstrations against him and his policies. After a Nashville motorist struck safety workers who were escorting antiTrump protesters at a crosswalk, a Tennessee state representative introduced legislation that would relieve motorists of any liability should they accidentally hit someone deliberately blocking a street.
In many cases, the bills’ sponsors emphasize that they are trying to improve public safety or keep order, not squelch free speech.
“We support the First Amendment altogether and want people to get out and do what they want,” said state Sen. George B. Gainer, R-Fla., who has proposed legislation that would raise fines for blocking traffic and, like the Tennessee measure, indemnify drivers who accidentally hit protesters. “But they shouldn’t endanger themselves or others.”
Some free-speech advocates, however, have their doubts. “There are already laws on the books in states that say if you break something or harm somebody, you’re going to be prosecuted,” said Patrick F. Gillham, a sociologist at Western Washington University who studies protests. “They’re troubling. They potentially have a chilling effect on protest.”